Recherches critiques, historiques et topographiques sur la ville de Paris, depuis ses commencemens connus jusqu'à present ; avec le plan de chaque quartier

First edition, rare, illustrated with 25 folding plans of different sizes. Each volume has multiple pagination corresponding to the various quarters described, between 2 and 5 parts. A general engraved title page repeated 5 times.
Contemporary full blonde calf binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 4 fleuron compartments, roulette at tail and head. Red morocco title label, green morocco volume label. Volume I: Tail headcap with lacks to leather. A lack at head. Joints cracked and frayed at tail. Boards very scuffed with large lacks of leather exposing the boards. One corner bumped. Volume II: Lack at head. Tail headcap worn. Scuffing along joints and edges, and to lower board. 3 corners bumped, one corner folded. Volume III: Head headcap torn away. Lacks to joints at head. One corner bumped, the others scuffed. Scuffing along joints. Volume IV: 2 corners bumped. Scuffing along joints. Volume V: A lack at head, same at tail. Scuffing. 2 corners bumped. Some plans with tears at folding. Overall fresh paper. Despite the multiple defects noted, a handsome-looking set in a quality binding.
Recognized as one of the most important figures and among the most demanding of Parisian historical and archaeological criticism of the 18th century, Sieur Jaillot departed from the paths traced by his predecessors whom he praised in his preliminary discourse, and turned to a new science to which he was inclined by a family tradition of cartographers, historical topography. Attempting to reconstruct in readable fashion the transformation of streets and changes in the city of Paris, he quickly realized that cartography alone constituted an impasse. It was from this impasse that his research work was born, based on archives, writing what it was impossible to render solely through drawing.